KDE 3.3.2 packages now available in experimental

From: Adeodato Simó (asp16_at_alu.ua.es)
Date: 12/22/04

  • Next message: Peter Nuttall: "Re: KDE Arts and JACK"
    Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 22:12:30 +0100
    To: debian-kde@lists.debian.org
    
    

    Hello all,

        [Sorry for the crossposting, please follow-up to debian-kde only.]

    KDE 3.3.2 in experimental
    =========================

        As you may have noticed, many KDE 3.3.2 modules have been uploaded
        to experimental during the last few days. These packages include
        numerous fixes to old and recent bugs, plus the new upstream codebase,
        so we encourage you to test them and give us some feedback.

        Anyway, remember that they are in the experimental distribution,
        which means they may have serious new problems. If you find a bug,
        please do report it, but be sure to tag the report as pertaining to
        the experimental packages. Also, take into account that this coming
        week is the Holiday Season, so response times may be poor.

        As upgrading to experimental may be cumbersone, we've set up an
        alternate repository in Alioth. Just add this to your sources.list
        file:

          deb http://pkg-kde.alioth.debian.org/kde-3.3.2 ./

        Those are the very same packages as the ones in experimental (*), but
        here a simple apt-get update && apt-get upgrade will work. However,
        as Alioth is a little overloaded these days, we kindly ask that you
        install from your usual mirror if you can.

          (*) Except for kde-i18n, which is not in experimental, and was
          fetched from http://people.debian.org/~noel/kde-i18n. kdepim,
          while has been uploaded to the archive, is not in the mirrors yet
          since it needs NEW processing; packages were fetched from this
          temporary archive: http://people.debian.org/~schepler/kdepim.

      Why experimental instead of unstable
      ------------------------------------

        These 3.3.2 packages have been uploaded to experimental, rather than
        unstable for various reasons:

          - First and most importantly, so as not to interfere with the KDE 3.3.1
            transition to Sarge, which is pending. See below for details.
            Using unstable would have thrown away all the effort that has
            been put in having KDE 3.3.1 ready to enter Sarge.

          - Also, as a lot of extra changes, apart from upgrading to
            3.3.2, have been included, the possibility that these packages
            contain new bugs is high. We've been using them for a week
            now, and seem to work fine, but one never can tell...

          - Lastly, the two people behind many of the changes are not Debian
            Developers and have had (until now) little experience preparing
            full releases of core KDE packages, further increasing the
            possibility of breakage.

    THE TRANSITION TO SARGE
    =======================

        Other than the latest release update [1], there has been no official
        statement by any of the KDE people about the issue. So here goes:
        "Yes, Sarge is expected to ship with KDE 3.3".

          [1] http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2004/12/msg00006.html

        Some weeks ago, the Release Managers expressed their concerns about
        the transition to the members of the KDE Packaging Team, and then a
        proposal that tried to address them was issued. After some fruitful
        discussion, it was finally accepted. We sincerely thank the Release
        Team for their excellent work, their consideration, and their
        patience.

      Why the transition hasn't happened yet
      --------------------------------------

        Although KDE is in pretty good shape and mostly ready to enter
        Sarge, the transition is blocked by another transition involving
        gcc-3.4, glibc and some other packages. This happens with some
        frequency in testing (one transition blocking another one, e.g. the
        libtiff transition not so long ago), and it's just a matter of time
        until it gets solved. The people involved in the gcc-3.4/glibc issue
        are working on it at the moment.

      So, will Sarge have KDE 3.3.1 or 3.3.2
      --------------------------------------

        That's a question that only time can answer. Although KDE 3.3.2 is
        certainly (as always) an improvement over 3.3.1, we really just can't
        upload 3.3.2 to sid until 3.3.1 is in Sarge, since that would mean
        to risk having the transition not happen at all!

        So, the plan is:

          1. Get KDE 3.3.1 into sarge
          2. Upload KDE 3.3.2 to sid *if* the experimental packages have not
             shown any major bugs *and* all the people involved in KDE
             packaging agree it's time to do so.

        After that, and once KDE is in shape again (built on all
        architectures, no Release Critical bugs, etc.), it will be a
        decision in the hands of the Release Managers.

    CALL FOR HELP
    =============

        We'd also like to take this opportunity to ask for help from users
        in continuing to improve KDE in Debian. The KDE packages are
        enormous, and take a great deal of time to maintain properly. One
        particular task where users could be of great assistance is the
        writing of proper package descriptions. Few KDE packages have more
        than a bit of marketing boilerplate at the moment. Please help us by
        writing good, useful descriptions, made available in severity minor
        bugs against the relevant package. You may find this debian-kde
        thread [2] of some interest.

          [2] http://lists.debian.org/debian-kde/2004/11/msg00093.html

        If you're feeling really ambitious, manpages would also be very
        welcome for packages currently lacking.

    PEOPLE
    ======

        KDE 3.3.2 packaging credits:

          - kde-i18n packages were prepared by Nočl Köthe.

          - kdepim and kdegames packages were prepared by Daniel Schepler.

          - arts, kdelibs, kdebase, kdegraphics, kdemultimedia, kdenetwork,
            kdeadmin, kdeaccesibility and kdeutils packages were prepared by
            Christopher Martin and Adeodato Simó.

        Also a big thanks to:

          - Daniel Schepler, who sponsored all the experimental uploads done
            by Adeodato and Christopher.

          - Riku Voipio, who has been very active in getting KDE 3.3.1 in
            shape and ready for Sarge.

          - Chris Cheney, who (needless to say) has done the enormous task
            of maintaining many of the packages for a long time, and who
            shall be active again soon.

        Enjoy!

     -- Christopher Martin, Adeodato Simó

    -- 
    Adeodato Simó
        EM: asp16 [ykwim] alu.ua.es | PK: DA6AE621
        Listening to: Martirio - Mańana de carnaval
     
    Love in your heart wasn't put there to stay.
    Love isn't love 'til you give it away.
                    -- Oscar Hammerstein II
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  • Next message: Peter Nuttall: "Re: KDE Arts and JACK"

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